Willem slipped into the Void once more and masked his presence by shrinking the magical energies in his body. Though the denizens of the Void drifted past him without purpose, the closer he got to the nightmarish creature, the more pressure he felt gathering.

When Willem had gotten within one hundred feet of the creature, a large eye on the top of it's head opened, staring directly at him.

The head of the creature was grotesquely misshaped, and it wriggled in the Void like a worm in water. Thirty sharp ended legs circled around it's body like a protective layer against attackers.

The monsters that were unlucky enough to drift within the path of the nightmare creature were skewered by the legs before having their life force absorbed violently.

"Truly a nightmarish creature." Willem could not help but think to himself.

If he got struck by one of those legs without proper defenses, who knows how quickly he would die. However, he was in the void, so how could he prepare a magical defense without the creatures gathering to attack him?

Willem had no time to contemplate, as the large worm like creature began to approach him while staring unblinkingly.

"What, are you?" The creature had no mouth to speak of, but still it spoke and Willem understood.

"My name is Willem, I am a Grand Mage!" Willem replied in his mind.

He was unable to speak verbally within the Void unless he created a magical bubble to protect himself from invasion.

"No. Boy, what ARE you?" The creature retorted.

The creature still continued to approach Willem, albeit slowly.

"I do not understand the question. I am a human." Willem responded in desperation.

"Do not lie to me BOY, YOU are no HUMAN!" The worm-like creature shocked Willem with a single sentence.

Willem hesitated as he watched the creature. Though he could not just openly believe what the monster was saying, he felt like somehow it was not lying to him. This perplexed Willem, since every document he found spoke of how only humans can learn Magic. If he was not human then what was he?

The creature stopped approaching Willem after getting within ten feet of each other. Under the amazing pressure of the creature, Willem found it hard to breathe.

"I... I will ask you the s-same question. W-what.... are you?" Willem could barely stutter out a sentence, it was as if his mind was under incredible pressure.

"Haha, you got some backbone BOY. I am the Great Wyrm that strangles the world, Jörmungandr. I have lived far longer than any of these pathetic other creatures within the Void. Your presence here intrigues me, and I have been so bored as of late. Will you come with me and entertain me?" The Great Wyrm announced with a child-like exuberance.

As if he had finally found a cure for his boredom, his voice was adamant but could not easily hide the excitement of finally finding someone to capture his interest.

"Are you not with the Magical Beings? We are fighting a war so that the humans are not wiped out. I am afraid I have no time to entertain you." Willem was completely confused by the situation. "Also, if you can 'strangle' the world why are you so small?"

"Boy, do you really not know? This body before you is just a projection of my soul. You swim inside my body, as I am one with the Void. I only followed these Magical Beings because I thought something interesting would happen. So far all they do is eat, sleep and fuck each other. Especially those elves, they mate with each other alot." The Great Wyrm sounded depressed as he spoke.

Willem was completely caught off guard, and could not even come up with a proper retort. Everything this Great Wyrm spoke did not seem to be a lie, and even more so it was giving away information about the Magical Beings without hesitation.

"Hmm... I will make you a deal, Jörmungandr. If you tell me where all the Magical Beings currently are, I will come visit you when I have dealt with them. If you have waited so long for interesting company, surely you can wait a little longer." Willem felt the pressure he had received from the Great Wyrm lessen considerably now that he no longer considered him a threat.

"Haha, you really are interesting. Alright, approach my body, I shall bestow upon you a gift." The Great Wyrm agreed after a few moments of silence.

Hesitantly, Willem slowly swam through the Void as he approached the Great Wyrm's soul projection.

One of the legs of the Great Wyrm gently touched Willem's forehead as information began to flood Willem's brain. Willem felt like his mind was splitting in half as a flood of information began to flow through his brain.

"Agh!... Ugh..." Willem could not help but cry out in pain.

After the pain subsided, Willem stared blankly at the Great Wyrm, as if his brain was trying to process the information he had been given.

"What did you just give me?" Willem tried to recall what Jörmungandr had given him, but every time he tried he would get a headache, like his mind was splitting in half.

"I gave you some of my knowledge, but to unlock it you must first form your soul. That magical energy that is inside you, when it has reached one hundred percent completion, will be your soul. As far as I can tell, you are close to reaching one hundred percent. Know that your journey has just begun, boy." Jörmungandr reminded Willem.

"My name is Willem, not boy. What will you do now, Jörmungandr?" Willem had received all the information he had asked for from the Great Wyrm, so he was preparing to leave.

This question was to ensure himself and his Squad would not be attacked. If the Great Wyrm was who he said he was, even Willem would not be a challenge for him.

"I will continue to watch over you, to make sure you return. I will advise you to not make me wait too long, hahaha... Oh I can hardly wait!" Jörmungandr laughed to himself nonchalantly.

What a weird beast, Willem could not help but think. Though try as he might, he could not hide his thoughts from the Great Wyrm.

"Maybe I should teach you how to hide your thoughts. Hahaha..." The Great Wyrm reprimanded Willem as he saw him preparing to go.

As Willem jumped through the Void back into the physical world, the projection of Jörmungandr's soul disappeared as well.

During the conversation of Willem and Jörmungandr.

Sir Kris and Sir Rowan lead their soldiers into glorious battle. Before the guards had enough time to blow the horn to warn their allies, the offensive Squad had already begun cutting through the tents of the various Magical Beings.

The defensive Squad took up their practiced quarter moon formation, slowly entrapping ten soldiers before systematically cutting them down with magic imbued weaponry. As the weapons cut into the flesh of the Magical Beings, a small black fire remained behind, corroding their skin and subsequently burning them alive.

The Magical Beings in the camp were a much larger company than the advanced scouting party, and was able to effectively respond to the attacks. The Magical Beings that were originally sleeping, when they heard the distress of the blowing horns, quickly donned their armor and weapons.

Small skirmishes began to break out all over the camp, as the offensive took a thirteen by twelve double line, sweeping across any enemies that stood against them.

"Cyclops!" A soldier yelled out as the offensive line retreated to a secure position with their defensive teammates.

Ten cyclops were sprinting from the other resting spot toward the chaos of battle, thirsty for good food and a better fight.

The cyclops had a single large eye in the middle of their heads, and they stood at least fifteen feet in height. The tip of their genitalia swung from the bottom of their loincloth as they smashed friend and foe alike, sweeping across the battle with lust and fervor.

A few members of the defensive Squad were incorrectly positioned and took a severe smash from one of the cyclop's attack.

Despite clearly dented armor and broken arms, the soldiers stood up as if they felt no pain at all, swinging back at the cyclops in a frenzy. As they aimed for the knees, they were able to get the cyclops to fall over, where they viciously stabbed at it's weak spot, it's eye.

As the swords and spears were lodged in the eye of the downed cyclops, killing it, another cyclops nearby went into a frenzy and began smashing it's companions. Anything that the cyclops could get it's hands on, it would mercilessly smash against the ground before biting off the head and consuming it. As if consumed by their bloodlust, the cyclops attempted to tear through the quarter moon formation of the defensive Squad.

The defensive formation held strong as it weaved in and out with the offensive formation. The defensive formation protected the Squad from an assault of arrows from above as well as the brutal assault of the nine still living cyclopes.

The offensive formation danced through their allies just as they had practiced against the training dummies, only taking guaranteed opportunities to strike out without being hurt. The few defensive Squad members that had been struck stayed behind the defensive line, away from the battle in order to be healed by a water mage.

From the dented armor that had clearly broken a few ribs, to the broken arms that still tightly gripped their weapons, the water mage could not comprehend how the soldiers could withstand so much pain.

"We feel nothing!" The soldiers exclaimed with glee, despite their terribly disfigured bodies.

Holding back from vomiting, the water mage did his best to heal the wounds of his comrades while keeping up with the defensive formations active spell conjuring.

As the offensive and defensive Squad continued to fight against the Magical Beings, it was obvious that soon they would be completely surrounded. Even if they were able to escape from their enemies, they had no idea which way they had to run to in order to reach the Bastion of Hope.

The Magical Beings surrounded the forty seven soldiers, forcing them to change from a quarter moon formation to the full moon formation they had practiced specifically for this circumstance.

The three injured members stayed in the center as the defensive and offensive Squad got as tightly knit as possible.

Having practiced this formation along with the quarter moon, they were able to duck, weave, and parry with uncanny accuracy while slowly cutting down their foes.

Despite the overwhelming size of the cyclopes, their brute strength could not break the several magical defensive shields that protected the Squad. Even the keen sight and precision of the elves arrows could not break through the defense of the Squad.

"Move." A single command was issued from the depths of the darkness beyond the campfire.

An oppressive aura appeared as a large figure approached the campfire in the middle of the camp. As the campfire illuminated his face, a humanoid looking man stepped forward. As he continued to walk, he stepped through the campfire but remained unburnt. The clothes on his body seemed to be made of flame retardant materials as they did not burn away.

As he stepped over the campfire, his full figure was finally illuminated. The man's face was delicately handsome, with no sign of freckles or blemishes. The few things that distinguished him apart from a human was that he had two large red horns that sat atop his forehead and he was clearly a few feet taller than the average human.

Other than the horns on the man's head, his limbs were elongated and instead of hands, he had incredibly sharp claws. Along his arms ran deep crimson scales from his wrist to his shoulders. He wore the scales like a badge of honor, choosing not to cover them in anything but the light of the moon.

The Magical Beings immediately stopped their assault on the Squad, before stepping back and maintaining a circular area that the Squad could not escape from. Even the battle crazed cyclopes stopped attacking and backed away obediently.

A sense of dread washed over the Squad as the figure before them steadily approached.